Teachers’ Problems in Teaching
English as a 2nd Language
Presented by:
Muhammad Kaseer Khan
Course Coordinator English Language Section
Outline
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1. Objectives
2. Video of 2nd language learner
3. English as 2nd language/ Teaching ESL
4. Important Issues
5. How to avoid these issues
6. General problems
7. Linguistic Problems
8. Suggestions
9. Discussion
10. Conclusion
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Objectives
 To increase understanding of current trends for
learning and teaching English.
 (Teaching English in Saudi Arabia, To Whom,
When and How Should English Be Taught?
 To highlight linguistic contrasts between English
and Arabic .
 To figure out potential learning barriers .
 To use effective teaching techniques that can help
ESL learner.
 To use effective learning strategies to target
specific learning needs
Foreign Language Learner
Video of a 2nd Language Learner 
English as a Second Language
(ESL)
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Teaching process and how hard it actually is to teach
!!!!!! You can get an idea from the video you have just
watched.
Not Just Classroom Teaching
It soon became clear that, besides concerning myself
with the issues of my actual teaching I needed to
understand and make decisions about many other
issues that surrounded and permeated ESL
classroom instruction.”
-Helene Becker ….What are those issues
Teachers have to keep in mind all those factors that
retards students learning. e.g.
Important Issues
a) Background knowledge
b) Culture
c) Linguistic challenges
d) Emotional Challenges
e) English, is the Tool, students need to
succeed in all walks of life.
Problems
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In past we didn’t have good listening aids.
Listening lab & headsets
Textbooks & our Students’ level
English , only in English classes?
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Teacher centered classes vs learner centered
Out dated teaching methodology
Lack of innovation
Heavy teaching load
Large classes
Insufficient credit hours
Carelessness
Linguistic Problems
1. Arabic alphabet and script:
 right to left
 cursive
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1
Adjectives/ prepositions
 Wrong use of
Adjectives due to
mother tongue
influence as in
Arabic Adjectives
come after noun they
modify.
 Examples
 He is a boy tall.(
Incorrect)
 He is a tall boy. ( correct)
 Sea red ( Incorrect)
 Red Sea ( Correct)
 Staff English (incorrect)
 English Staff (Correct)
Syntactic errors
 In English, items in a
series are separated
by commas, and the
coordinate conjunction
'and' is used just
before the last word.
 On the other hand, in
Arabic, each item in a
series is preceded by
the conjunction 'wa'
which is equivalent to
'and
 Example
 For, them not to hate
me they need to
respect me and realize
how much I love them
and how hard I work
for them. (repetition of
“wa”)
Capitalization
 No concept of capital
letters in Arabic.
 afterwards i want to get
a university level
education in the united
states
 last but not least, if i was
giving an animal a shot i
have to make sure that i
am giving it in the right
place.
Pronunciation and spelling
 Saudi students replace /p/ sound with
/b/
 e.g. bebsi instead of pepsi
 Blay/ play
 2. They pronounce letter (e) even
when it is silent.
 Come, people, cycle etc. knowledge,
Verbs
No ‘be’ verb in Arabic
(e.g. My teacher very smart)
Instead of
My teacher is very smart.
I am go there ( Wrong use of “be”)
Problem of regular & irregular verbs.
Come, Comed, Comed
Discussion
1. What differences are you aware of
between the Arabic and English language
(vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation,
rhetoric, literacy, script, etc.)?
2. Do they create problems for the target
language learners?
3. How might these differences affect English
language learning of Arabic speakers?
4. What are other factors a teacher must
focus on besides teaching the language?
Suggestions
Suggestions
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Library & English newspaper
Original books
Access to internet in library ( to serf edu.sites.)
Study trips
Informal meetings of students & teachers.
Separate exam facility
Permission to give listening exam before writing
portion.
Conclusion
 In a nutshell, I must say we can
be better teachers and impart
better knowledge to our ESL
learners if we can overcome all
above mentioned problems.